Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “Personal”
Life is always surprising me, and I try to bow to reality whenever it turns things upside down. I decided many years ago to proceed as though the Universe is intelligent, and we are constantly presented with choices that we must make for better or worse. In regard to producing visual art, what does that mean? Here are examples …
It’s been a long time since I have communicated with you all. A lot is changing in my world. On a very personal level My husband Carl took a bad fall in March and needed spinal surgery. He is recuperating from that trauma. Thank heaven he is receiving excellent rehabilitation care from some wonderful people. On another front the wonderful …
It has been weeks now since Lyle Hehn passed Away. It’s still hard to say “died.” He was not only a dear friend, but an incredible and foundational creator of the Mcmenamins look. What I guess your would call the visual brand of Mcmenamins. When I first met Lyle, he had already been very active for Mcmenamins, painting in the …
When I was between my junior and senior years in college I got a job working at the Silver Seahorse restaurant and marina out on the east end of Long Island. The great attraction was being in East Hampton and Amagansett out on the island, where a lot of New York artists spent the summer. What a treat to catch site of a …
This past weekend I visited a show that, sadly, ended on May 1. It was at the Hoffman Centerfor the Arts in Manzanita, and was titled Capturing Oregon’s Magic. It featured a sampling ofworks included in the book, “Oregon Painters Landscape to modernism, 1859-1959”.This is a wonderful book by Ginny Allen and Jody Klevit. It was a beautiful show. I …
I just returned from a short trip to New Mexico to look at art, paintings in particular. We visited galleries in Santa Fe,Taos and Albuquerque. I got a good intense dose of Southwest art. Art is BIG there. Landscapes featuring mountains, rock formations, indigenous people, horses, cattle, cowboys, cowgirls and ravens are favorite subjects, and sometimes whimsy. Abstract art, not …
Many years ago, I was doing a job for the Clackamas County Library Headquaters in Oregon City. As I was struggling on a ladder to do the exterior lettering, an older man stood watching me. Why aren’t you using a pounce pattern?” He asked. “What’s that?” I replied. He explained that in a pounce pattern, you draw your design or lettering on …
I had a wonderful art teacher in High school named Fred Pilkington. He emphasized consistency in making art. “One hour a days beats 7 hours in one day”. This was inspirational and foundational for my life in art. It has become a satisfying work pattern. . It gives me the patience to remember that tomorrow is another day and perhaps …
Thoughts about Frieda Kahlo and Diego Rivera at the Portland Art Museum exhibition. I loved closely examining the paintings to understand their process, what brushes were used and how color was modeled and the designs of their work. They were both superb draftsmen, and could both draw beautifully. There were aquatints of details in one of Diego’s murals, and they were …
Occasionally the title of a painting can be the initial inspiration . All ready to be put down onto a surface. This rarely happens to me. Sometimes, when I was more of an illustrator, the title would simply identify the focus/subject, like the name of the person in your portrait. When I was creating a scenario inspired by historical events, …